Iraqi PM tells US to decide mechanism for troop withdrawal

Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has told the US secretary of state to send a delegation to Iraq tasked with formulating the mechanism for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, according to a statement released Friday.

The statement, from the office of the Iraqi caretaker prime minister, said the request came in a telephone call between Abdul-Mahdi and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday night. It says Pompeo called the Iraqi premier.

The prime minister said Iraq rejects all violations against its sovereignty including the attacks carried out by Iranian forces against US troops in Iraq and also American violations of Iraq’s airspace in the airstrike



that killed a top Iranian general last week.

The Iraqi leader asked Pompeo to “send delegates to Iraq to prepare a mechanism to carry out the parliament’s resolution regarding the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq,” the statement said.

“The prime minister said American forces had entered Iraq and drones are flying in its airspace without permission from Iraqi authorities and this was a violation of the bilateral agreements,” the statement added.

Iraqi lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution to oust US troops following a strike that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and senior Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis last Friday.